The Øvre Stabu spearhead is an iron spearhead which bears an
Elder Futhark inscription
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of E ...
dated to either the second half of the 2nd century AD or 210–240 AD, making it one of the oldest runic inscriptions preserved.
It was discovered on the Øvre Stabu farm at
Eastern Toten
Eastern or Easterns may refer to:
Transportation
Airlines
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
* Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...
,
Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, in one of two graves, alongside other grave goods. The spearhead is of the ''Vennolum'' type (a term for a type of lancehead typical of the period, of which about 300 specimens are known) and has a length of 28 cm. The runes are incised using a 'zig-zag' technique, and are partly lost due to corrosion.
The inscription is presumably recording the name of the spear. The name is interpreted as the
Common Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bra ...
(
Proto-Norse
Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...
) form of
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
, meaning "tester". Compare the Gothic inscriptions on the
spearhead of Kovel
A spearhead is the sharpened point (head) of a spear, similar to an arrowhead. It is often a separate piece called a projectile point.
Spearhead may also refer to:
Armed conflict
* Armoured spearhead, a tactical formation
* HMS Spearhead (P2 ...
(''tilarids'', "thither-rider") and the
spearhead of Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg (, "router").
See also
*
Migration Period spear
The spear or lance, together with the bow (weapon), bow, the Migration Period sword, sword, the seax and the shield, was the main equipment of the Germanic peoples, Germanic Ancient warfare#Germanic, warriors during the Migration Period and the ...
References
* Tineke Looijenga, ''Texts & contexts of the oldest Runic inscriptions'', BRILL, 2003, , pp. 78, 93, 101, 126, 128, 136, 149, 151, 336, 338, 357.
* Inscription/entry N KJ31 in the RuneS-Database of the research project "Runic Writing in the Germanic Languages (RuneS)" of Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2024. https://www.runesdb.de/find/21
External links
image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ovre Stabu Spearhead
Elder Futhark inscriptions
Archaeology of Norway
2nd-century inscriptions